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A review by delijha711
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
SPOILERS!
Like, I feel many of the people that read this book, were influenced by bookstagram/booktok to read this because of the dark academia that it claimed it to be. No one told me that the main character was going to be complaining and having random bouts of stream of consciousness and just all around be pretentious and annoying for the first ONE HUNDRED PAGES. And I am not throwing out a random number, I literally got to page 100 and that's when she stopped being a dick all the time. Like all we get is her ramblings and her saying she hates this person and that person and only sees everyone else not as people but as things to be used, what is the story? Where is the plot? All I know is that she hates most people, thinks very highly of herself (and honestly at like 16-17 I respect that cause I did not have that mindset at that age) and hates this dude Orion who has saved her and she's mad about it. Like miss girl, no one noticed you before this dude, if he's saving you and you can literally die from anything in the school apparently, why be mad? And the school itself doesn't make a lot of sense to me, I could be wrong, but if this school is incredibly protected, in the freaking void, how do all these things keep getting in? A lot of things are just being stated rather than being shown, like El is telling us these certain things happen but we don't actually get to see 90% of the stuff that she talks about, and it would be so much more interesting if we did. Like the library scene, I understand that we have to follow her narration- as we have no other-but I wanted to see the fight between Orion and whatever it was rather than read about her walking around the isles trying to find him and looking at books. I understand the why of what she is doing but it is just not good writing to have the reader just hear about a fight going on and not actually see it. And she is always talking about how powerful and a badass she is, like girl prove it then! The whole library scene was probably where I gave up hope for this book and character getting any better. The entire stream of consciousness while there is a fight goin on is uninteresting, I was bored. And her attitude about everything, there is no development in her character even when she realizes she is the problem. She’s still prideful and admits it. (The Hitler comment! Really weird and unnecessary) safe to say I will NOT be continuing this series. As a BIPOC person, the forced diversity argument was in the back of my head while I was reading it and some things I did agree on-like the dreads- and some things like forcing diverse characters I didn’t feel as much. But the only thing I have to say is that, in my opinion, most characters of color have that underlying story or conflict or just mannerisms of being a person of color, El didn’t have that. I felt like the author just added she was half Indian for the hell of it and it offered nothing to her character, which was such a bummer because I don’t see those characters prominently displayed often and would’ve loved to have had those nuances discussed more.
Like, I feel many of the people that read this book, were influenced by bookstagram/booktok to read this because of the dark academia that it claimed it to be. No one told me that the main character was going to be complaining and having random bouts of stream of consciousness and just all around be pretentious and annoying for the first ONE HUNDRED PAGES. And I am not throwing out a random number, I literally got to page 100 and that's when she stopped being a dick all the time. Like all we get is her ramblings and her saying she hates this person and that person and only sees everyone else not as people but as things to be used, what is the story? Where is the plot? All I know is that she hates most people, thinks very highly of herself (and honestly at like 16-17 I respect that cause I did not have that mindset at that age) and hates this dude Orion who has saved her and she's mad about it. Like miss girl, no one noticed you before this dude, if he's saving you and you can literally die from anything in the school apparently, why be mad? And the school itself doesn't make a lot of sense to me, I could be wrong, but if this school is incredibly protected, in the freaking void, how do all these things keep getting in? A lot of things are just being stated rather than being shown, like El is telling us these certain things happen but we don't actually get to see 90% of the stuff that she talks about, and it would be so much more interesting if we did. Like the library scene, I understand that we have to follow her narration- as we have no other-but I wanted to see the fight between Orion and whatever it was rather than read about her walking around the isles trying to find him and looking at books. I understand the why of what she is doing but it is just not good writing to have the reader just hear about a fight going on and not actually see it. And she is always talking about how powerful and a badass she is, like girl prove it then! The whole library scene was probably where I gave up hope for this book and character getting any better. The entire stream of consciousness while there is a fight goin on is uninteresting, I was bored. And her attitude about everything, there is no development in her character even when she realizes she is the problem. She’s still prideful and admits it. (The Hitler comment! Really weird and unnecessary) safe to say I will NOT be continuing this series. As a BIPOC person, the forced diversity argument was in the back of my head while I was reading it and some things I did agree on-like the dreads- and some things like forcing diverse characters I didn’t feel as much. But the only thing I have to say is that, in my opinion, most characters of color have that underlying story or conflict or just mannerisms of being a person of color, El didn’t have that. I felt like the author just added she was half Indian for the hell of it and it offered nothing to her character, which was such a bummer because I don’t see those characters prominently displayed often and would’ve loved to have had those nuances discussed more.